PWD’s 17 EEs, 15 AEs unpaid for last one year

16 Mar 201905:32am IST

16 Mar 201905:32am IST

Team Herald

PANJIM: Close on the heels of government taking cognizance of eight mamlatdars going unpaid for six months, Herald has come to understand that several senior officials of the Public Works Department (PWD) are victims of the same error committed by Personnel Department.

Herald has learnt that the State government, or rather the Personnel Department or the General Administration Department, has committed a major error which has resulted in non-payment of salaries to PWD officials.

This, at a time when the government denies that the administration has failed due to poor health of the Chief Minister. The failure to pay salaries to its employees is an example of how the common man is affected.

As per information 17 Executive Engineers and 15 Assistant Engineers have gone unpaid for the last one year. Sources said that the officials were appointed on ad-hoc basis in March 2017 for one year, which ended on March 31, 2018 and thereafter till date they have not got salaries as Personnel Department has failed to regularise their appointment or extend the ad-hoc appointment.

The Goa Government Employees Association (GGEA) had also written to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar in this regard.

An officer speaking to Herald on condition of anonymity said they have approached the concerned department several times but to no avail. “With no salary for over a year now, it has become very difficult to manage day-to-day expenses. Besides, we have home loans, car loans also,” said an official on condition of anonymity.

A month ago, Herald had reported about eight mamlatdars going unpaid for six months. Immediately, Goa Human Rights Commission had taken cognizance of the same and issued notices to the Chief Secretary. Thereafter, within days the government had regularised the ad-hoc appointments of the mamlatdars.